We all know the situation in the country right now – rocketing petrol prices, rising tax payments and wages frozen for thousands of people to help the country crawl out of recession. However, unlike many countries in the world, taxes cover medical care in the UK, so if you require a visit to your local hospital you don’t need to worry about paying.
Unfortunately, figures released today show that this isn’t strictly true. It was revealed that more than one in four National Health Service hospitals in England raised the price of patient and visitor parking by as much as 200 per cent between April 2010 and March 2011, with only 16 per cent of the commercial properties lowering costs to reflect the difficult times people are facing.
In other words, some hospitals – such as the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in London, for example – now charge up to £3.50 for a single hour’s parking.
The news was met with disgust by campaigners and health support groups, who claimed these charges were no more than a “tax on the sick and vulnerable.” They are now aiming to force healthcare commercial properties to follow Government guidelines which offer lower costs and concessions to people regularly using NHS services, such as patients with long term illnesses such as cancer.
Head of Policy at Macmillan Cancer Support, Duleep Allirajah, attacked the National Health Service for taking advantage of those desperately needing the service, saying “This is scandalous news that some hospital trusts are raising revenue by increasing hospital parking charges.
“Charging patients for using hospital car parks is a tax on illness. We want every hospital in England to comply with the Government’s guidance to provide free or concessionary parking for patients travelling regularly to hospital for treatment.”
However, it is not only patients and visitors that are suffering from raised fees – shockingly, most hospitals also charge their staff to leave their car on hospital grounds while they work busy shifts.
A nurse who works in a Lancashire NHS commercial property, who did not wish to be named, said “At my NHS hospital they deduct £27.50 per month from my wages for parking, and I’m one of the fortunate ones who actually gets a space! 
“Some people need to park in a multi-storey in town and get the bus. Funnily enough, the directors don’t have that problem as they still have their allocated on-site spaces in the hospital grounds.”
She added “We also get parking tickets if we park in the wrong section of staff parking, and often there are no spaces in our designated area. So if you’re wondering why your appointment is way behind schedule or your operation is delayed, this could be the reason!”
Health Minister Simon Burns defended the parking charges, saying “No one should be paying extortionate amounts to park in an NHS car park.
“But introducing free hospital car parking could cost the NHS more than £100 million – money that would otherwise be spent on patient care.”
However, the Chief Executive of the Patients Association, Katherine Murphy, rebutted this, arguing that many patients have to visit hospitals regularly and should not be penalised by having to pay “exorbitant” parking costs. “It is often money patients do not have in these troubled financial times and is a tax on the sick when people have already paid for their health service.
“Hospitals should be properly supported by the government and should not have to rely on charging patients and visitors to park to make ends meet.”
Others have described the system as “unfair”, due to the fact that most patients receiving care from hospitals in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not have to pay for parking on hospital grounds at all.
Do you agree that patients and visitors should have to pay parking fees to use their local NHS service? Perhaps you have a relative in hospital, or have recently been a patient yourself – if so, has this charge affected you?
